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From the creator, writer, and executive producer of the HBO crime series True Detective , comes a dark and visceral literary debut set along the seedy wastelands of Galveston. On the same day that Roy Cady is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he senses that his boss, a dangerous loan-sharking bar-owner, wants him dead. Known "without affection" to members of the boss's crew as "Big Country" on account of his long hair, beard, and cowboy boots, Roy is alert to the possibility that a routine assignment could be a deathtrap. Which it is. Yet what the would-be killers do to Roy Cady is not the same as what he does to them, which is to say that after a smoking spasm of violence, they are mostly dead and he is mostly alive. Before Roy makes his getaway, he realizes there are two women in the apartment, one of them still breathing, and he sees something in her frightened, defiant eyes that causes a fateful decision. He takes her with him as he goes on the run from New Orleans to Galveston, Texas-an action as ill-advised as it is inescapable. The girl's name is Rocky, and she is too young, too tough, too sexy-and far too much trouble. Roy, Rocky, and her sister hide in the battered seascape of Galveston's country-western bars and fleabag hotels, a world of treacherous drifters, pickup trucks, and ashed-out hopes. Any chance that they will find safety there is soon lost. Rocky is a girl with quite a story to tell, one that will pursue and damage Roy for a very long time to come. Recalling the moody violence of the early novels of Cormac McCarthy and Denis Johnson, this powerful, potent, and atmospheric thriller is impossible to put down. Constructed with maximum tension and haunting aftereffect, written in darkly beautiful prose, Galveston announces the arrival of a major new literary talent.

After reading the first chapter, I thought I would start talking using a teen slang – putting the word "like" after every word. I also thought that the book is about the fight between gangs. But it was not. Yes, there are fights, but it's not the point. It turned out that the book is pretty good. And well written, conveying human emotions without unnecessary frills. Only the name of the novel "Galveston" could be different, because it sounds like "guide" for tourists. Although, in a way it is - Guide to Galveston, but not to its beaches and hotels for "golden" youngsters, but to the places that show the real side of life of many people, which sometimes bordering with “cloaca” of relations between persons. The novel leaves a strong impression, although heavy.